Life is a beach

We met my sister, Chrissy & her husband, Tom, at the beach house on Topsail Beach. My parents drove down with us and we had adventures like Nate throwing up in his car seat.

But we're here and loving every minute of it. Nate has been asking for the beach since we left here last year-I'm glad we can finally give him what he wants.

Seth is the best beach dad because he loves doing all the same things the kids do. From this small beginning came a huge sand castle.

My happy boy

The dunes

I'm not quite as fun at the beach, but I do enjoy burying the children. They thought it was fun too.
The intercoastal waterway runs behind our beach house and we have a dock. We tempted the crabs with pepperoni and were able to catch a few. Kylie was terrified of them to begin with but eventually stopped running away:)

The Little Red Hen

This year, Kylie's class performed two separate plays so everyone could perform. Kylie was in "The Little Red Hen" as a chick.
The little boy next to Kylie in this photo is the Little Red Hen-what's with that? Next they'll have a white Othello.

This is my chick.

Kylie had a great line that she repeated, "We'll help you, Mama." She's good at that at home too.

The Wrong Trousers

Nathan had a Wallace & Gromit (which he calls"Gomace and Hammus") moment this morning after using the potty. We told him to put his pants on and, seeing a pair of pants on our bed, assumed they were his. The look on his face was so cute when he realized he had the wrong trousers. We decided to see how Daddy's would fit. Here is the result.

Great Expectations

I've realized our children do not have great expectations. A number of small incidents have accumulated over the course of the week that have led me to this conclusion. Today, for example, we took a ride and admired the agricultural land outside of State College. We saw calves and they were cute, despite the smell. Then "it" happened.

Kylie saw the ugliest, more dilapidated trailer that man put on earth, about fifty years ago, and gasped. "Oh Mommy! Look! It's a trailer!" She loves trailers. I don't mean the spacious, nice ones they make now. I mean the ones you find in the woods. The uglier, the better. She does not get this from me, nor does she get it from Seth.

We were almost home when I said, "I hope you get a job, Seth". Then Kylie interjected, "You should be a cable guy!"

I honestly have nothing against cable guys...unless they happen to have PhD's. So now I'm sitting back imagining Kylie's life in fifteen years. I see an ugly but homely trailer. I see her husband sitting on the couch in his cable-guy uniform with his arm around her, watching all the free cable his job entitles him to.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Happy Valentine's Day! Last night Seth took the girls to a dance at the church...and locked the keys in the car(he-he).

When the girls got home they both told me they ate lots of junk food. They were very pleased with themselves...until Kylie came out at 9:30 p.m. to say her stomach hurt.

This is Eowyn in the picture with Kylie. She is practically family as she lives across the parking lot from us and both the girls adore her.

The Sweetest Place on Earth!

On Saturday we decided to drive to Hershey, PA so we could go to Chocolate World. For any of you that don't know what 3 kids crammed in the back of an Altima looks like, this picture is for you.

They had solemnly promised not to fight on the 100 mile drive there and did a great job. Please notice we aren't wearing coats-it was a beautiful 50 degree day:)
Please note how absurdly photogenic my husband is-it's not fair. This is the Chocolate World Tour that takes you through the chocolate refining process.

I can't begin to tell you the power these singing cows yield. We talk about them, sing the songs they sing...they are the most influential cows on earth.


At the end of the tour they give you two free samples. We took the tour 5 times, you do the math. The chocolate store is in the background with its cornucopia of fattening products.

The girls had those syrup bottles on their heads too, but by time Nate caught on they had moved on.

We caught the Chocolate World band and parade-a first for us. Kylie tried to hug them.
I took this picture no more than 5 minutes after we got in the car. The kids actually napped.

I'm handsome

Nathan has noticed Seth's Sunday dress and wants to be just like him. Today he noticed that Seth uses hair gel so Nate got a copious amount for his own hair. When he was primped he looked at me and said, "I'm handsome."